Australia
Research Article
Challenges in Determining the Substitute Decision Maker: Findings from an Australian Intensive Care Unit
Author(s): Mendoza JL and Burns CMMendoza JL and Burns CM
Background: Little research has been undertaken to explore how Substitute Decision Makers (SDM) are chosen by patients and especially for incompetent adults in an intensive care unit (ICU). Objective: To determine how substitute decision makers are chosen in ICU. Method: A retrospective cohort study using a clinical file audit to appraise socio-demographic and qualitative data from the medical record. The data from the medical record was collected by one researcher and analysed using a de-identified file. Ethics approval was sought and granted by the hospital Ethics Committee and the research was deemed to be low risk due to the nature of the retrospective file audit. Setting/Participants Patients admitted to ICU between July 2010 and June 2011 (n=1500) and died within ICU (n=236). The social demographic features were analysed using descriptive statistics and analysis using SPSS stati.. Read More»
DOI:
10.4172/2573-0347.1000115
Journal of Advanced Practices in Nursing received 410 citations as per Google Scholar report